His soothing words did nothing to calm my racingnerves. “What if they arrest me? What if they have something on me?”
His blue eyes blazed with conviction. “They won’t.”His frown returned. “They don’t. I’ll figure it out,” he promised. “We’ll getto the bottom of this. And if by some miracle they have a tiny piece ofevidence against you, we’ll make it go away. It won’t be hard. You’re going tobe fine.”
I felt sick. All I could think about was Brick andVinnie’s warnings. “How do you know?”
“Because I’m not going to let anything happen to you.I promise you that, Six. As long as I’m able, I will protect you from every badthing. You don’t have to worry about anything. Ever. I will do whatever ittakes to keep you safe.”
His words wrapped around my heart, cradling it back toreality. His promises seemed impossible. Except I believed him. There wasconviction in his tone, raw truth in his eyes. Sayer meant what he said.Every single word of it.“How can you say that? We’ve onlybeen going out for—”
“You think my feelings started when we kissed?” Hiseyebrows drew down over his eyes. “You think my feelings started a couplemonths ago? Come on, Six, I’ve been after you since the first day I met you.Since you saved my life and gave me something to live for.”
“Sayer, I didn’t—”
His fingers pressed against my lips. “Caroline, beforethat day I was lost. I was living on the streets, afraid of dying every singleday. Afraid of dying that day when your dad and his friends were done with me.And then there you were, so fucking pretty my chest hurt just looking at you.And you didn’t just give me the courage to get through the day, you gave me thetools I needed to get off the streets. To stay off the streets. To keep living.To liveforsomething. You saved mylife that day, but you also saved my soul. You gave me the brotherhood, yeah.But before that? You gave me you. And since that day you’ve been it for me. Myworld. The one thing I’m living for above everything else.”
I couldn’t speak. I didn’t want to speak. I justwanted to spend the rest of the night absorbing those words, playing them overand over and over in my head until I finally convinced my heart to believe them.How… how did he expect me to recover from that?
“I love you, Six. I think I’ve loved you since thatalley. I think I’ll always love you.” I bit my bottom lip and tried to steadymy breathing. I was desperate to hold myself together, to keep from crumblingin a heap of awe and emotion and hope. How did I get to have this man’s love?How did I get to love him back? How was this my real life? There had never beena job that compared to this moment. No surge of adrenaline or priceless trophyor singular moment in all of history that was as special as this one. Hemistook my silence for rejection. Glancing down at the carpet, he asked, “Is ittoo soon to say all that? I meant to wait…”
“It’s not too soon,” I whispered, barely finding myvoice. My frozen fingers cradled his face, coaxing him to look at me again.“It’s not.” I had to swallow a deep breath and dig for courage, but finally Iwas able to confess my truth. “I think I’ve loved you from that same day. I thinkI’ve always loved you. I can’t remember a day when I didn’t. Before you I wasmiserable and angry. And then there you were and it was like I had finallyfound…”
“Something to live for,” he filled in, his wordsmaking permanent homes in my heart, filling my soul with a satisfaction I hadnot known existed.
I knew he’d just confessed he loved me, but theinsecure girl in me had been expecting rejection anyway. Instead, I got themost beautiful boy smiling the most beautiful smile. All of Sayer relaxed in away I had never seen from him before. He was warm and bright and radiatingpeace all at once. It was like my confirmation of love had given him access toa whole new part ofhim,a piece he hadn’t evenrealized he’d been missing.
His head dipped to meet my lips already on their wayto his. His kiss was tender, slow, achingly reverent. His hands landed on myshoulders and slid down my arms, carefully caressing my body as he went.
There was so much sweet worship in this kiss that Ididn’t know if I’d be able to survive it. I had never been touched like thisbefore. Never been kissed like this.
His mouth was all warm seduction as he moved overmine. I was a fluttering heartbeat of consent as he moved us to the bedroom,stripping pieces of our clothing as we went. Our shoes were left in theentryway. His jacket over the back of the couch. His belt on the floor by thebathroom. His shirt and my dress at the foot of the bed.
He laid me back on the puffy comforter and slowlystripped my stockings off me. I lay there in my strapless bra and minisculepanties and waited breathlessly for him to cover me with the warmth of hisbody.
He came down on top of me like a boy that had beengiven the best gift of his life. His eyes alight with true love, his handstrembling with the sacredness of the moment. His mouth moved over my body,tasting every inch of me, kissing and licking and adoring me as though he’dnever had something so wonderful before.
The rest of our clothes quickly disappeared and wewere left naked and desperate for each other. I still trembled. I couldn’t stopmyself.
I had never been this far with a boy before. I hadnever been this intimate or exposed. And yet, he took care of me as we exploreduncharted territories carefully.
His fingers dipped inside me first, taking me to aprecipice I didn’t know existed. And just when I thought I couldn’t hang on fora second longer, he changed tactics. I watched him put a condom on withouttaking a breath.
“Have you done this before?” he asked, his gazeholding mine captive.
I shook my head. “No.”
His expression softened, deepened, his entire bodygoing taut with anticipation. Then he was hovering over me, whispering promisesand I loveyousand pushing inside me slowly. Therewas the break, the release of the barrier and a wince from me while he kissedmy breasts and my collarbone and all the places he could reach, soothing theache and creating a new one all at once.
“Sayer,” I whispered, needing him to move, to dosomething other than drive me to the edge of insanity. “Love me,” I beggedshamelessly.
His head lifted and our gazes collided, finding eachother in the darkened room, refusing to let go.
“Always,” he swore. But he didn’t move right away. Instead,his mouth pressed against mine, searing that promise to my lips, making itpermanent.
When at last he lifted his hips, only to drive themdeeper inside me, I gasped at the sensation. I didn’t know something like thisexisted… I didn’t know it was this good.
We were a tangle of lust and something deeper,something eternal. My breath hitched and continued to hitch until I finallytumbled over the edge of blinding light. My legs were wrapped impossibly tightaround his waist and my fingernails dug into his back without realizing it. Hechased after me, moving fast, hard,deep.
“Oh, God,” I gasped. And that same beautiful symphonyof light and sensation and the tightening of every last muscle happened asecond time.
